“The Line Between,” by Peter S. Beagle (Tachyon, 231 pages, $14.95)
Peter Beagle has been a distinguished but infrequent voice since his fantasy debut in 1959. A collection of his recent stories shows he is still a fresh and charming author.
Old friends are brought together for a last quest in a sequel to the 1968 novel “The Last Unicorn.” A girl sets out to bring the king back to save her village from the griffin that has been attacking them.
“Salt Wine” is set in an interesting new locale of sea merchants in the days when “there was mermaids all over the place, like you don’t see so much today.” Ben Hazeltine and Henry Lee were mates on a ship where Lee saves the life of a merman. As a reward he is given the recipe for “Salt Wine.” The wine makes them successful businessmen but also brings terrible consequences.
Beagle ventures away from science fiction with a tale of Sherlock Holmes in the years when Dr. Watson and the world thought him dead.
Everything Beagle writes is a pleasure to read.
“The Lightstone,” by David Zindell (Tor, 414 pages, $25.95)
“The Lightstone” is the beginning of an ambitious quest epic told with poetry and verve. Although Zindell lives in Colorado, the books were first published in longer versions in England.
The lore of Ea is that the lost Lightstone is the key to peace. A foreign king has issued a call to join a quest for the Lightstone. Valashu Elahad defies his father and joins the quest. His dishonor at home grows when he refuses to kill a defeated enemy in a duel. Val is joined by his friend Maran and Juwai, a master of the brotherhood. Along the way they add other seekers, including a princess and a dangerous man with a mysterious past.
Even before he accepts the call to seek the Lightstone, there are attacks on Val’s life. Val is beset by dreams from Morjin, the immortal Lord of Lies, who wants to possess the Lightstone to destroy it. They must fight dangerous beasts on their way, but instead of dragons they face mosquitoes, ticks and leeches.
Although the weight of the invented history can be a bit heavy when one character explains the history of Ea to another, the first-person narrative of Val makes the adventure a vivid story.
“Tick Hill,” by Billy Eakin (Yard Dog Press, 197 pages, $16)
Billy Eakin’s rollicking B-movie gross-out tale of killer insects is a lot of fun. Red, white and blue ticks built to protect us are using us for lunch.
Mary Kiefer wasn’t happy about her parents moving from California to Arkansas, and her first date with Bobby Joe Raymond Thornton isn’t going well. She escapes the groping at the drive-in when Bobby Joe runs away, convulsing with blood flowing from all over his body. Mary is the only one who notices the tiny blue bugs escaping from the boy’s body.
The government project over the top of Tick Hill closed years ago. But something happened to the containment of the abandoned Homeland Security program. Very aggressive ticks with a fast life cycle are attaching themselves to people and not letting go.
“Tick Hill” is grotesque and raunchy in the best meaning of those words.
“Snake Moon,” by Ray Manzarek (Night Shade Books, 199 pages, $23.95).
A founding member of The Doors rock group has written a weird tale of a forgotten Tennessee valley and the Civil War. Boone Dillard and his family are so isolated they don’t know there is a war going on. A traveling salesman fills Boone with visions of the wealth his pottery could bring in the big city. Boone leaves the valley with his brother-in-law, Jebber, to seek his fortune. A childhood accident has left Jebber “a funny, rascally, petulant, exuberant boy in a man’s body.”
They make a mythical journey as a vanishing ferryman takes them across a river of death. They are almost hanged as spies but survive, and a young woman purchases all of Boone’s pottery.
While Boone lives a life that is too good to be true, Jebber joins the Army. The war has found their wives back at Coker Creek and left the family in ruins.
The novel is based on an unproduced screenplay.
Freelance writer Fred Cleaver writes a monthly column on new science fiction.
